eBay issues threat, Google blinks

Pulls its advertising after Google schedules an event to promote its online credit service that conflicted with the auction site's annual merchants' meeting.

But in a contrite manner, Google cancelled its rival function a day before it was due to happen and stated on its blog: "After speaking with officials at eBa, we at Google agreed it was better for us not to feature this event during the eBay Live conference."

Analysts believe that after negotiations, eBay will once again be advertising on Google, which accounts for more than 50% of search querries in the US and 80% in Europe.

"It was a clever-dick marketing tactic from Google that has gone wrong," Ian Maude, analyst at media and telecom consultancy Enders Analysis, told the BBC.